The Panama Canal is an artificial 77 km waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. There are locks at each end to lift ships up to Gatun Lake, an artificial lake created to reduce the amount of excavation work required for the canal.

Cartagena was founded on June 1, 1533, and named after Cartagena, Spain, which in turn was named after Carthage in Tunisia. Settlement in the region around Cartagena Bay by various indigenous people dates back to 4000 BC. It is the fifth-largest city in Colombia and the second largest in the region.

Roatán is the largest of Honduras’ Bay Islands. The island was formerly known as Ruatan and Rattan. It is approximately 77 kilometres (48 mi) long, and less than 8 kilometres across at its widest point.

Belize is the only country in Central America whose official language is English, though Belizean Creole (Kriol) and Spanish are also commonly spoken. With 22,800 square kilometres of land and as of 2014 a population of 340,844, Belize has the lowest population density in Central America. The country’s population growth rate of 1.97% per year (2013) is the second highest in the region and one of the highest in the Western Hemisphere.